Dorset councillors want dogs on leads allowed on Weymouth Beach from 6pm to 6am in summer. Weymouth Town Council officers call it risky and want it stopped.

Dogs could be walked on Weymouth’s main beach on summer evenings and early mornings from next year, if Dorset Council’s Cabinet agrees on Tuesday 10 November.

The change would let dogs on leads onto the beach between 6pm and 6am during the summer restriction, which runs from 1 May to 30 September. At the moment they are banned all day in that period. No other Dorset beach would change.

The idea did not come from the council’s officers. It was added by councillors at the Place and Resources Overview Committee on 1 October, and Weymouth Town Council, which manages the beach, says it was never asked.

How the 6pm rule got into the plan

Officers had recommended keeping every summer beach ban exactly as it is. We reported that recommendation, and the 5,013 consultation replies behind it, last month.

The committee’s draft minutes record a long debate on evening and early morning access. Points raised included:

  • families could use the beach together with their dogs
  • businesses near the beach could trade for longer
  • dog walkers could help with enforcement by caring about keeping the right
  • children on beaches are vulnerable, and health risks need weighing

A trial on one beach was suggested, and Weymouth was named “due to it having a regular cleaning schedule”. The minutes note that the beach is cleaned at 6am.

Councillor Ryan Hope proposed the change and Councillor David Taylor seconded it. The committee agreed to recommend to Cabinet that, subject to legal advice, dogs should be allowed on Weymouth beach from 6pm to 6am “to allow evening and early morning dog walking on lead”.

If that could not be done in this review, the committee asked officers to run a trial instead, to inform the next one. Lyme Regis was discussed, but the minutes say Lyme Regis Town Council did not support changing its rules.

The town council’s objection

Weymouth Town Council’s Environment and Services Committee meets at 7pm tonight, Wednesday 28 October, at the New Town Hall. Its agenda says the legal approval has now been given, so the change can go to Cabinet.

Town council officers have “significant concerns”. Their report says the proposal came forward with “no consultation or engagement with the Town Council who will bear the brunt of negative impacts and complaints”.

The risks they list:

  • more dog mess on the beach, needing extra early morning litter picking
  • mess left overnight being carried into the bathing water by the tide before the 6am clean, which raking does not remove
  • confusion over set hours and a set area, and little enforcement at night
  • more complaints landing on the town council’s resort team
  • a threat to Weymouth’s hopes of regaining Blue Flag status

On Blue Flag, the report says the scheme’s organisers have confirmed that 6pm to 6am “should not represent a problem”. The officers’ worry is water quality: if fouling rose, that could put the award at risk.

The report says the extra cleaning would have to go into the town council’s autumn budget. It asks councillors to send Cabinet a statement that “Weymouth Town Council strongly objects” and asks Dorset Council not to bring the change in without consulting the town council and beach users first.

Councillor Hope, who proposed the change at Dorset Council, also chairs the town council committee that will consider the objection tonight.

What else the new dog rules keep

The new Dog-related Public Spaces Protection Order would run for three years, from 1 January 2027 to 31 December 2029. The committee recommended keeping the other rules officers proposed, including dogs on leads on Weymouth Esplanade and the Rodwell Trail. The minutes also note a petition of around 7,000 signatures, which councillors treated as evidence of public interest rather than a consultation response.

What it means for you

  • If you walk a dog in Weymouth: nothing changes this year. Dogs are allowed back on the beaches on 1 October, as now. The new hours, if agreed, would apply from May 2027.
  • The decision: Dorset Council’s Cabinet decides on 10 November. Its papers will appear on the council’s meetings site before then.
  • To tell the town council what you think: public questions for tonight’s meeting had to reach office@weymouthtowncouncil.gov.uk by 9am yesterday, but you can still write to your town or Dorset councillors.

Toilets are on the same agenda tonight: the town council is also deciding whether to charge 50p at the refurbished Maiden Street toilets.

Sources